Pastor's Corner - Solemnity of Christ the King & St. Cecilia Feast Day

Next Sunday with the celebration of the Solemnity of Christ the King, we formally end the current liturgical year. But for us here at the parish, aside from celebrating Christ the King next Sunday, we will also be celebrating the patronal feast of St. Cecilia. When a parish celebrates it’s patronal feast, the liturgical celebration is actually elevated into a solemnity. What does this mean? This means that liturgically, we can actually opt not to celebrate Christ the King for next Sunday and instead celebrate the feast day of St. Cecilia. It does sound odd because one would think that solemnities of Jesus would take precedence over the patronal feast days. But liturgically, patronal feasts trump other solemnities except if it falls on the Sundays of Advent and Lent. After reflecting on it and analyzing what is allowed or not in the liturgy, Father Mark and I decided to take the middle ground. All of our Masses next Sunday will celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King to mark the end of the liturgical year except the 10:45am Mass. During the 10:45am Mass, we will have the patronal celebration of St. Cecilia. This does not mean, though, that there would be no references to the feast of St. Cecilia in other Masses.

In celebration of the Feast of St. Cecilia, I would like to invite everyone to a spaghetti dinner next Sunday starting at 3pm to 6pm at the Activity Center. This would be a wonderful time to come together to celebrate who we are as a parish and to honor our patron saint, who has been interceding for our community for more than a century. I would like to thank in advance everyone who is involved in the planning and organizing of this event, especially the Men’s Club and Knights of Columbus, in coordination with Michelle Hallett. Our teens in Youth Ministry will also be helping serve at the event.

Last weekend, 27 teens from our Youth Ministry had a weekend retreat at the Father Bernard Youth Center in Mount Angel. This retreat would not have been possible without Mary Kiefer, our Youth Ministry Coordinator, and our volunteers in Youth Ministry who continue to reinvigorate and bolster this crucial core ministry of our parish. It is our hope that this kind of experience would deepen the faith of our teens, thus bringing them into a profounder knowledge of themselves and of other people.

As we draw towards the end of the liturgical year and enter into a new season in two weeks, let us reflect on how we have progressed in our call to Christian discipleship. Is my faith deeper this year compared to last year? Am I having a better appreciation and understanding of who I am in relation to my Creator? The liturgical cycle is not just a routine where we find ourselves passively going through a cycle but, rather, it is meant to be a “school of virtues” where we learn how to conform ourselves more and more to the person of Christ with the hope that when we reach our “final” liturgical year in this world, we would be ready to celebrate them for eternity in heaven. – Fr. Cary